When Chris Smith saw a headline about 47-year-old L.A.-based tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson’s quest to spend $2 million a year to become 18 again, the director knew he’d found the subject of his next documentary. But there was a problem.
“I wrote to (Bryan’s team), and they said I was the sixty-fifth production company/person to reach out to them about doing a doc,” Smith recalls.
Luckily for Smith, known for his zeitgeisty docs including “Fyre” and “Bad Vegan,” Ashlee Vance – the journalist who wrote the Bloomberg article about Johnson that turned him into a worldwide sensation – was a fan. Vance encouraged Johnson to partner with the director.
For 12 months, Smith followed the tech entrepreneur on his crusade to avoid death. The result is the Netflix docu “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever,” about the controversial wellness practices Johnson uses to not only defy aging but rewind his body’s clock.
The doc chronicles the algorithm-based, ultra-regimented body care system Johnson follows. It involves taking 130 pills daily, eating dinner at 11 a.m., going to bed at 8:30 pm, a 90-minute workout, weekly MRIs, weekly skin care treatments, plasma exchanges and even Follistatin gene therapy, which is not approved by the FDA. Instead of celebrating his birthday every 12 months, Johnson blows out candles every 19 months.
At times laugh-out-loud funny, the film explores the effects Johnson’s journey has had on his life and those around him, including Johnson’s father and teenage son. Doctors, researchers and scientists who are not associated with Johnson or his health initiative company Blueprint, which touts the multimillionaire’s protocol therapies online, are interviewed throughout the 88-minute docu.
“It’s not science,” says Dr. Vadim Gladyshev, a Harvard professor who is interviewed in the documentary. “It’s just attention.”
But Johnson and his team view his steps to reverse aging as a way to help advance anti-aging science. “He is the best guinea pig anyone can ask for,” says Dr. Oliver Zolman, Johnson’s longevity consultant.
“We do a good job of showing that some people think that what Bryan is doing has a lot of value and some people don’t,” says Smith. “One of my hopes is that people take away from the movie that a large amount of health benefits can be achieved through sleep, diet and exercise. That is something that is attainable by anyone.”
Variety spoke to Johnson about Blueprint, DJ Grimes and the value of sleep.
In the documentary, you live a regimented life that isn’t exactly enviable. Are you still living this way? Do you ever have fun?
Johnson: I still live as regimented as I did (in the doc). I would say the difference is that I recently was at a party with DJ Grimes. Her set was at midnight. So, I went to bed at 8 p.m., and I slept until about 10 or 10:30 p.m. I got two hours of deep sleep. I woke up, and I went to the party. I danced for a couple of hours, and I came home, and I got the remaining hours of my REM sleep. So, I still got a 100% sleep score. But I did it in a biphasic manner. So, I am trying to try new things that allow me to participate in certain events. Now, it would have been better if Grimes’ event was from like 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., but that’s OK. I’m working with what I have.
You are 47 years old, but how old is your body?
I’m probably biologically in my late twenties.
You say that you’ve chosen to live your life in this regimented way for the benefit of science. However, it costs over $300 a month to subscribe to your Blueprint health protocol. So, what would you say to people who are trying to take better care of themselves but can’t afford Blueprint?
I’ve demonstrated to have the best biomarkers of anybody in the world. There is no human out there that has better biomarkers than me. So, the good news for everybody else is I now have a guide for everyone to follow based upon this evidence that they can do, and most of it is free. We have heard that sleep is good for us, but yet culturally, we deprioritize it, and it’s the first thing it goes if we have to work late or have to travel, or we want to stay up and watch a show or be out with friends. So, to demonstrate how important sleep is to the body I (achieved) eight months of perfect sleep. I showed people with five habits that you can, in fact, achieve high-quality sleep every day and that sleep is the single most powerful anti-aging drug in the world. And it’s free. So, good health is within everyone’s reach. I shared my protocol for free with the world at no cost. I’m trying to encourage a shift in culture.
In the film, one scientist criticizes you for not using your money to fund a scientifically backed critical trial. Why don’t you want to use your money to do that?
If I have one dollar to do a given thing, as an entrepreneur, I’m trained to think what is the maximum contribution to society the dollar could make? A clinical trial is a way to spend a dollar. I don’t think it’s the most effective way to spend a dollar. If you are trying to achieve better health outcomes for the entire world, then I think creating a global revolution or a zeitgeist shift around health is much more efficacious than a clinical trial. The problem is not that we don’t know what to do. The problem is we are not doing what we know we should do.
What did you think of the Smith’s portrayal of you in the doc?
I didn’t know what to anticipate when it began, but I think Chris correctly identified that the biggest story in my life was my relationship with my son and father. At the time, I wasn’t speaking about (my family) publicly because I typically keep those things private. I mostly was talking about health, but I think Chris got to the heart of what was really on my mind and what I care about. So, in that regard, I guess I feel seen.
“Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever” is currently streaming on Netflix.
